We missed the World Games in Cali, Columbia. It is not like this website (or ourselves, for that matter) are sponsored by some big do-gooder that spews out plane tickets for field archery fans. To Terni on the other hand, we could drive, so it's just a hotel, some gas and spare time and walking that is involved.

Terni is a nice town, about an hour north from Rome, where people are incredibly tanned at the end of the Italian summer. I stick out like a snowflake in a tar pit; I had my summer vacation in Norway this year. I strolled through the city on my way to the "World Archery European Village", an encampment that has been put up near the riverside in town. It is about the biggest temporary camp that I have seen during a World or European field archery championship. There are bands in the evening, shops, a boatload of stationary bikes and lots of effort involved. And accreditation of course. We got that out of the way and met with the Dutch team who just had that sorted out too and were in need of a group picture. Done! And on my way back I met the Swedish team, the coach from Finland and Belgium who got taken care of that routine as well.

The Belgian coach had some interesting news. They arrived yesterday evening and took the effort to go to the Meadows of Stroncone, for the unofficial practice. He told me it had rained there quite a bit today and it was about 15 degrees. That surprised me. Stroncone is up a bit in the mountains, but not a heck of a lot, some 300 meters high and a bit more than 7 kilometers from here. Very much unlike Terni itself: it rained a bit in the morning, but the sky cleared and it is about 25 degrees. The coach told me that is was too cold to shoot for fun, and there wasn't much fun to begin with considering the rain. On the off chance to get pictures from three cold zealots, I decided against driving up to Stroncone and prepared the website for the rest of this tournament. And uploaded some pictures from today.

I will check out Stroncone tomorrow, and make sure I bring a jacket and umbrella for the official training and equipment inspection.